Other Activities
In 1986 Pao retired from day to day management of the group handing over the shipping business to his son-in-law Helmut Sohmen and the Wheelock / Wharf interests to Peter Woo, another son-in-law. By 1989 he announced that he had given up his interests in the Trusts that held the Pao family assets (the shipping interests going to the Sohmen family and the Wheelock / Wharf interests going to the Woo family) and gave up his title as Honorary Chairman of World International. He had already retired from his directorship of the Hongkong Bank in 1983 when he hit the mandatory retirement age of 65 but continued to lead a very active life taking in advisory roles (formal and informal) and philanthropic activities. Over the years, Pao was on a number of corporate advisory committees including Chase Manhattan, IBJ, AT&T, United Technologies and Caterpillar.
Pao was active in philanthropic works and was particularly interested in educational projects. Among notable gifts were US$20m to found Ningbo University, a £14m contribution to the Sino-British Friendship Scholarship scheme to enable Chinese students to attend British Universities and a US$10m gift to build a library at Jiaoting University in Shanghai.
Read more about this topic: Yue-Kong Pao
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